Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Oncology Volume 2012, Article ID 950749, 9 pages doi:10.1155/2012/950749 Research Article HAX1 Augments Cell Proliferation, Migration, Adhesion, and Invasion Induced by Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator Receptor Ahmed H. Mekkawy, David L. Morris, and Mohammad H. Pourgholami Cancer Research Laboratories, Department of Surgery, St. George Hospital, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2217, Australia Correspondence should be addressed to Mohammad H. Pourgholami,
[email protected] Received 26 May 2011; Revised 6 October 2011; Accepted 6 October 2011 Academic Editor: K. K. Singh Copyright © 2012 Ahmed H. Mekkawy et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) is a cell surface receptor which has a multifunctional task in the process of tumorigenesis including cell proliferation, adhesion, migration, and invasion. Many of the biological functions of uPAR necessitate interactions with other proteins. We have shown previously that uPAR interacts with HAX1 protein (HS-1-associated protein X-1). In the current study, to gain insight into the possible role of HAX1 overexpression in regulation of uPAR signal transduction pathway, several function assays were used. We found that, upon stimulation of uPAR, HAX1 colocalizes with uPAR suggesting a physiological role for HAX1 in the regulation of uPAR signal transduction. HAX1 overexpression augments cell proliferation and migration in uPAR-stimulated cells. Moreover, HAX1 over-expression augmented uPAR-induced cell adhesion to vitronectin as well as cellular invasion.